Note 24 — PART I.—DESCRIPTION.

On Hoshang’s death his son Ghazni Khán, with the title of Sultán Muhammad Ghori, succeeded. Malik Mughís, his father’s minister, and the minister’s son Mehmúd were maintained in power. In three years Appendix II. The Hill Fort of Mándu. History The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570. (a.d. 1433–1436), as Sultán Muhammad proved dissipated, cruel and suspicious, Mehmúd, the minister’s son, procured his death by poison. Mehmúd Khilji then asked his father to accept the succession, but his father declined, saying that Mehmúd was fitter to be king. In a.d. 1436 Mehmúd was accordingly crowned with the royal tiara of Hoshang.24 He conferred on his father the honour of being attended by mace-bearers carrying gold and silver sticks, who, when the Khán mounted or went out, had, like the mace-bearers of independent monarchs, the privilege of repeating the Bismillah ‘In the name of the compassionate and merciful Alláh.’25 He gave his father royal honours, the white canopy and the silver quiver, and to his title of Malik Ashraf Khán Jehán he added among others Amír-ul-Umara and Aâzam Humáyún.26 Mehmúd quelled a revolt among his nobles. An outbreak of plague in the Gujarát camp relieved him from a contest with Ahmed Sháh.27 In a.d. 1439 Mehmúd repaired the palace of Sultán Hoshang and opened the mosque built in commemoration of that monarch which Farishtah describes as a splendid edifice with 208 columns.28 About the same time Mehmúd completed Hoshang’s tomb which Hoshang had left unfinished. On the completion of this building Hoshang’s remains seem to have been moved into it from their first resting-place in the college. In a.d. 1441 Mehmúd built a Appendix II. The Hill Fort of Mándu. History The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570. garden with a dome and palaces29 and a mosque at Naâlchah about three miles north of the Dehli Gate of Mándu, a pleasing well-watered spot where the plateau of Málwa breaks into glades and knolls.30 In a.d. 1443 in honour of his victory over Rána Kúmbha of Chitor, Mehmúd built a beautiful column of victory,31 seven storeys high, and a college in front of the mosque of Hoshang Ghori. Facing the east entrance to the Great Mosque stands a paved ramp crowned by a confused ruin. As late as a.d. 1843 this ruin is described as a square marble chamber. Each face of the chamber had three arches, the centre arch in two of the faces being a door. Above the arches the wall was of yellow stone faced with marble. Inside the chamber the square corners were cut off by arches. No roof or other trace of superstructure remained.32 This chamber seems to be the basement of the column of victory which was raised in a.d. 1443 by Mehmúd I. (a.d. 1432–1469) in honour of his victory over Rána Kúmbha of Chitor.33 Mehmúd’s column has the special interest of being, if not the original, at least the cause of the building of Kúmbha Rána’s still uninjured Victory Pillar, which was completed in a.d. 1454 at a cost of £900,000 in honour of his defeat of Mehmúd.34 That the Mándu Column of Victory was a famous work is shown by Abul Fazl’s reference to it in a.d. 1590 as an eight-storeyed minaret.35 Farishtah, about twenty years later (a.d. 1610), calls it a beautiful Victory Pillar seven storeys high.36 The emperor Jehángír (a.d. 1605–1627) gives the following account of Mehmúd’s Tower of Victory37: “This day, the 29th of the month Tir, corresponding to July-August of a.d. 1617, about the close of the day, with the ladies of the palace, I went out to see the Haft Manzar or Seven Storeys, literally Seven Prospects. This building is one of the structures of the old rulers of Málwa, that is of Sultán Mehmúd Khilji. It has seven storeys, and on each storey there are four porticos, and in each portico are four windows. The height of this tower is about 163 feet and its circumference 150 feet. From the surface of the ground to the top of the seventh storey there are one hundred and seventy-one steps.” Sir Thomas Herbert, the traveller, in a.d. 1626 describes it from hearsay, or at least at second-hand, as a tower 170 steps high, supported by massive pillars and adorned with gates and windows very observable. It was built, he adds, by Khán Jehán, who there lies buried.38